JACC Gets a New Treasurer

At the 1/13/10 board meeting, JACC’s treasurer, Robert Hodson, announced that he would resign as treasurer (but remain on the board) so he could devote more time to personal pursuits.  The board elected Anne McCandless as his replacement.  Robert said he would remain available to assist Anne during the transition.  Robert has worked diligently on obtaining a new mortgage loan for the Probation House at 2539 Irving. Hennepin County is eager to sign another 5-year lease with JACC but is awaiting assurance that the mortgage has been obtained.  JACC’s original loan was for 5 years with payments at a 30-year rate and a balloon payment due at the end of the five years.  Robert has also worked on the lease.  He has been working with CPED to finalize the 2009 CDBG funds and on the 2010 contract for CDBG funds.  He’s done a number of other things for JACC’s benefit in his tenure as treasurer.

Anne brings to the role a lot of experience:  board member, board chair, board secretary, board treasurer.  She is a master gardener and an amazing quilter.   Welcome, Anne!

North Minneapolis Loses a Treasure

I attended the memorial service today for Reed Frentz.  He died of cancer on January 10.  Among the many other things that Reed has done, he was the Treasurer for 4PAC (4th Precinct Advisory Council) for several years.  If you attended the meetings, Reed was the tall, lanky guy who always told us how much money was left in the 4PAC bank account. But he did so much more.  There were many children at his memorial service.  When the pastor asked how many of them had done activities with Reed, they all raised their hands.  He stepped in when help was needed.  He was one of the gentlest men I’ve ever known.  His passing leaves a huge gap in North Minneapolis.  He worked quietly, often behind the scenes, content to be helping.  When I had to leave my place on the 4PAC board, Reed stepped in and took over managing the 4PAC web site.  He worked long and hard in an attempt to get 501(c)(3) exemption status for 4PAC.  I heard today how he fixed bicycles for neighborhood children. Reed didn’t want the limelight–he just wanted to help…and play with his children…and love his family.

Reed was just 42 years old and leaves behind his 2 children, his wife, his father, his mother, and his two sisters. Please hold his family in your prayers.

JACC Bylaws to Be Revised (w/Community Approval)

At the JACC Board meeting last Wednesday (11/11/09), Kip Browne suggested he tackle the task of revising the bylaws that govern the operation of the Jordan Area Community Council (JACC).  He offered to take Judge Porter’s comments made during the hearings in the lawsuit filed by the former board executive committee members and incorporate them into the bylaws.

When the bylaws revision is ready, it will be presented to the board for a vote.  If the board approves the changes, then the amended bylaws must be approved by a vote of 2/3 of the membership present at the meeting where the vote is taken.  The community must be notified at least 28 days prior to the meeting.

There are discrepancies between the Bylaws and the Articles of Incorporation as to how the bylaws can be amended.

The Bylaws state in Article IX, Amendments: “These Bylaws may be amended by a vote of 2/3^rds of the membership present at any general membership meeting provided the amendment(s) have been submitted in writing to JACC and notice has been given to the general membership of the proposed change at least 28 days prior to the date of meeting at which the vote will be taken.“

The Articles of Incorporation state (also in Article IX, Amendments): “The Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws of this organization may be amended:  provided, that the following steps are taken in succession:

1.  The proposed amendment is given to the Secretary in writing.

2.  The proposed amendment is read at a General Membership meeting.

3.  All members are given due notice by mail of the proposed amendment.

4.  Two thirds of all members present vote in favor of adopting the proposed amendment.  At least one week must pass between steps three and four.“

When the current bylaws were approved by the membership in November, 2003, the process was a combination of these processes that ensured the best in member notification and time to review the changes:  Members were notified as part of the October 2003 annual meeting notification that bylaw changes had been proposed and would be presented at the annual meeting.  The bylaw changes were read at the annual meeting, they were modified at that meeting by the member motions to include two sections requiring adequate notification of JACC membership about meetings.  The bylaws were voted on at the November 2003 general membership meeting (community forum) and approved.  This gave members the opportunity to thoroughly review the  bylaws between the time they were presented and the time the vote was taken.

JACC Elects New Officers

At a special meeting of the Jordan Area Community Council tonight (10/29), the new board of directors elected its four officers.  Shown above, from left to right, are:  Vladimir Monroe, Chair; David Haddy, Secretary; Michael “Kip” Browne, Vice Chair; and Robert Hodson, Treasurer.

Jordan Elects New Board Members!

The Jordan neighborhood held its annual meeting last night (10/22) and elected five new board members:

• Mike McCloskey, Catalyst Foundation employee
• Keith Reitman, property owner and incumbent board member
• Lynn Riskadel, resident
• Dan Rother, resident and incumbent board member
• Dennis Wagner, resident

Leaving the board are P.J. Hubbard, Deb Wager and Yulin Yin.  Michael “Kip” Browne leaves as an elected board member but remains as an ex officio member for the next year since he is the outgoing board chair.

Two people were selected as an elector and alternate for the Neighborhood Revitalization Program’s (NRP’s) annual election of four neighborhood residents to the NRP Policy Board.  Polly Peterson was selected as elector and Dottie Titus as alternate.  The elector will help select the Policy Board’s Revitalization representative (Minneapolis has 37 neighborhoods that identified themselves as Revitalization neighborhoods–Jordan is one of them) and the at-large representative.  That election happens on November 19 at the NRP location downtown.

The rest of the meeting…

ANNUAL MEETING ON THURSDAY, 10/22!!!

REMEMBER TO ATTEND THE ANNUAL MEETING ON THURSDAY, 10/22!

There’s dinner at 6 p.m.  Then you’ll hear from the Jordan neighborhood’s board of directors on what the past fiscal year (June 1, 2008 through May 31, 2009) was all about as well as where the organization stands today.  Committees will give brief reports on what they have accomplished.  Two special presentations:  (1) by Hennepin County on the proposed light rail transit routes through and around North Minneapolis, and (2) by BIKO and Associates on the design for the 26th Avenue Bike and Greenway.

Along the way, we’ll elect some new board members (5 candidates are running for the job) as well as a representative to vote on who will represent the 37 revitalization neighborhoods on the Neighborhood Revitalization Program’s Policy Board.

Please come out and join your neighbors for some social time and civic engagement!

It all begins at 6 p.m. at 3120 Washburn Avenue N at Parkway United Church.  This is the church that sits at the intersection of Lowry Avenue and Washburn Avenue.  Entrance is from the church parking lot, which can be reached from Vincent Avenue.

Nominating Committee Minutes – 9/28/09

The  minutes from the 9/21/09 meeting are still in work–our secretary was not at that meeting.  Will post as soon as available.  Here are the minutes from the 28th.

Nominating Committee Meeting Minutes

September 28, 2009

6:30 pm

JACC Office

Attendees: Dave Haddy, Todd Heintz, Tyrone Jaramillo, Dottie Titus

Absent:            Megan Goodmundson

The meeting was called to order at 6:40 p.m.

Items discussed:

-        No minutes were provided for 9/21/09 (Megan absent).

-        Reviewed action items:

• Tyronne said Parkway United Church was flexible about our meeting times (will notify them we need the space by 5:30 p.m).  He will contact about how we get the key, lock up, etc.  Todd offered to pick up the key on 10/22 during his lunch break.
• Tyronne found the name tag ribbons and will order them.  They will identify board members, nominating committee members and candidates
• Dave, Todd and Tyronne all plan to help at the table for the Harvest Days celebration on October 10.  Megan will do flyer.  Dave offered his help if she needed it.
• Waiting for Megan to report:  e-mail elected officials to invite; pick up neon green name tags for voters; sign-in sheets; flyer for Harvest Days Festival

-        Candidate vetting is complete.  The official list of candidates is as follows:

• Mike McCloskey, CATALYST, employed in Jordan neighborhood
• Keith Reitman, owns property in Jordan neighborhood
• Lynn Riskedal, resident
• Daniel Rother, resident
• Dennis Wagner, resident

-        Ballot design is being done by Megan

-        Two of the three tellers have confirmed (Bob Cooper, Linda Higgins).

-        Reviewed the postcards to be sent to all eligible voters; committee approved unanimously.

-        Reviewed the agenda for the annual meeting.  There was some concern that more time may be needed for the forensic audit portion.  Dottie suggested that if that appears to be the case, we can recommend the audit be discussed at the next community forum where it could be given more time.  The agenda for the annual meeting was approved.

-        We have requested a small grant from General Mills for food for the annual meeting and some community meetings. There has not been a response yet.  Unofficial word is that we can use some JACC funds to buy food at Costco and prepare it ourselves for the meeting.  Menu to be decided at a future meeting, but we are looking at things like large pans of lasagne and salad.

Meeting adjourned at 7:08pm (moved by Dave, seconded by Todd).

Action Items/Tasks from 9-28-09 Nom Comm.

Who	Description	Deadline
Megan	Invite 2 electeds	10/5
Megan	Make a flyer for Harvest Festival	10/5
Tyrone	Get instructions from Parkway United on lockup	10/19
Megan/Dave	Design ballot with bio info	10/5
Megan/Dottie	Sign-in sheets for annual meeting	10/5
Megan	Pick up name tags (neon green)	10/19

Demolition was cancelled

The Delisi demolition community aspect was cancelled–too few participants.  Perhaps everyone was still recovering from the Cottage Park beautification project?  The work goes on, however.

Ever wanted to do demolition? Here’s your chance!

An important announcement received today:

Support the work of Catalyst Community Partners (CCP) by participating in a building demolition on West Broadway Avenue in North Minneapolis.

The former Delisi building on the corner of Penn Avenue North and West Broadway in North Minneapolis is being gutted and rehabbed to make room for the new home of KMOJ Radio and a potential restaurant. To save on construction costs, we are recruiting 20 volunteers a day for demolition work this coming Friday and Saturday, October 2 and 3 from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm.

Volunteers are needed to remove large amounts of trash, haul out old furniture and carpet, demolish walls and a couple of walk in coolers. All of the hazardous material has been removed and an air filter machine will run for 24 hours before crews arrive to freshen the interior air.

Food and beverages will be provided on the work site.

To sign up, please contact Terry Egge at tegge@pohladfamilygiving.org. In your email, please provide:
1. Day(s) you are able to work
2. Tools you may be able to bring
3. Whether or not you will need a pair of work gloves
We anticipate that volunteer slots will fill up quickly so please respond by Thursday, October 1st at 1pm.

Thank you for your interest. We promise it will be a fun and exhausting experience!

Terry Egge
Senior Program Officer
Pohlad Family Foundation
60 South Sixth Street, Suite 3900
Minneapolis, MN 55402
612-661-3922
tegge@pohladfamilygiving.org

Pohlad Family Foundation Gives and Gives

The Pohlad Family Foundation has been extremely generous to the Jordan neighborhood.  This past week, they orchestrated an event to improve the Cottage Park area of the neighborhood.  A while ago, they provided funding for home improvements in the form of forgivable loans.  This week, the organized a huge volunteer effort to beautify that area, primarily on James and Hillside Avenues.  Professional contractors were on hand to assist, and there were a large number of volunteers from both inside and outside the neighborhood.  The Pohlad businesses paid the airfare for their out-of-town employees who volunteered.  The Pohlad Family Foundation paid all other expenses associated with the project, including for those volunteers who were not employees of Pohlad-owned companies.

It began with a kickoff dinner Thursday evening.  The theme was that when you show people that you care about them, they begin to care more about themselves.  And so paint, flowers, shrubs, lawn mowers, mulch and all kinds of people showed up in Cottage Park on Friday and Saturday to beautify this formerly blighted part of the Jordan neighborhood.  Chain link fences were removed from front yards where people wanted to get rid of them.  This is huge, in my opinion, because nothing says “ghetto” or “blighted” like a chain link fence in the front yards.  So Cottage Park continues its amazing restoration with the efforts of the Ackerberg Group, the Pohlad Family Foundation, Catalyst and other organizations.

And then, on a more personal note, two volunteers from the beautification project did something enormous for me.  They had heard how hard it’s been for me to keep up with my housework while battling cancer over the past couple of years.  On Sunday afternoon, after working hard on Friday and Saturday and driving folks to the airport on Sunday, they showed up at my door armed with cleaning supplies.  They scrubbed my vinyl floors, vacuumed my carpet, dusted and cleaned.  I am so grateful to them for their kindness and generosity.  It was a huge gift to me, and it was my birthday.  What a terrific present I received.

The Jordan neighborhood has been blessed in many ways with all the good things that are happening to make it a beautiful place.  Many people and organizations are working hard to help.  Today, though, I want to thank the Pohlad Family Foundation and two very special women for all that they gave.